Letters • September 18, 2009

He considers the Libertarian candidate, Bob Barr, to have been preferable to Barak Obama? Yes, that Bob Barr, who in case you’re too young or inattentive to recall, is the guy who authored the Defense of Marriage Act that has been used to deny everything from health care coverage to survivor rights to gay and lesbian Americans; the Bob Barr — thrice married, twice divorced — who did everything in his power to get Bill Clinton impeached for a blow job; the Bob Barr who voted for the Patriot Act that allowed warrantless snooping and eavesdropping; the Bob Barr who was a major proponent of the disastrously stupid "War on Drugs"; the abortion foe who, according to his ex-wife Gail, paid for her to have an abortion back in 1983.

(Don’t take my word for it; Google this fascist ex-Republican.)

Wow! Fan me with a brick!

Since this orgy of hate and stupidity, Barr has apparently "evolved," the term political opportunists use when they realize they’re on the wrong side of every issue and can’t even get elected sewer inspector.

Barr, a representative of Georgia’s 7th District from 1995 to 2003, is a Southern cracker who’s seen the light — specifically the stop light that finally brought his despicable career to a long overdue end.

Look for Old Yeller Wilson of South Crockalina and various other vocal crackpots like Michele Bachmann from the "Land of a Thousand Flakes" to join the Libertarian Party once they get themselves kicked out of office due to their extremism. The Libertarian Party is the elephant graveyard of the Republican Party.

My partner and I both voted for Obama. We were living in Washington (state) at the time, so our votes actually counted for something, unlike the Democratic votes we would have cast for Obama had we lived in Texas.

We had hoped Obama would be the answer to the failed state that is our national government. We hoped he would end the pointless wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, stop enforcement of "Don’t ask, don’t tell" until that abomination could be repealed, stop the ridiculous "War on Drugs," repeal DOMA and head up an administration that might finally listen to the overwhelming scientific consensus and do something material about global climate change. We hoped he would fulfill his promise to address this country’s healthcare scandal.

So far: No, no, no, no, no and "probably not."

So far Obama has awarded a posthumous medal to Harvey Milk, a gay progressive politician who was murdered by another politician whose ideology was precisely the same as Bob Barr’s. As Bill Maher has said, the Democrats have moved to the right and the Republicans have moved to the nut house.

This country does need a third party, but that party is emphatically not the "Libertarians" and that leader is not and will never be some used-up whackjob like Bob Barr. Too bad insurance in this country doesn’t cover "reality checkups."

Robert ConnerDallas

Over 30, not invisible

I understand that we live in a culture that is obsessed with youth, and that is especially true in the gay community. But I couldn’t help being offended by Arnold Wayne Jones’ comment in a recent issue of Dallas Voice that any person over the age of 30 is, and I quote, "culturally invisible" ("When worlds collide," Dallas Voice, Aug. 28).

Culturally invisible? I think someone needs to wash the cultural BS out of his eyes and take another look.

As a successful business owner that has networked in the GLBT community for more than 25 years (yeah, that makes me over 30), I can attest to the fact that our generation is anything but invisible.

Who do you think is managing all those businesses that work so hard to provide necessary products and services to the community, including medical and other services for people with HIV and AIDS? A bunch of 20-year-olds? Hardly.

And the 20-year-olds weren’t around in the "old days" before Stonewall when police right here in Dallas could verbally and physically harass anyone that they saw doing business with any gay bar or any other gay-friendly business.

It was the "older generation" that fought all those battles for human rightsthat are now a part of history. That is hardly what I would call "culturally invisible."

But what really turns my blood to ice water about Mr. Jones’ comment is the thought that younger members of the community may actually take it seriously, dismissing older people as "dinosaurs" and discounting their years of experience as irrelevant to the present. And when they do, they will be doomed to repeat the same old mistakes that have plagued this community for so many years: more and more new HIV cases, more police raids on people minding their own business in a local gay bar, more hate crimes against gay people on the street, and on and on and on and on.

Sound familiar? That’s because things haven’t changed over the yearsas much as you’d like to think. Maybe it’s time that people of every generation actually pool their collective experience together and start listening to each other. As an older guy who’s been around a while, I can tell you truthfully that being "invisible" never has solved any problems, and it never will.

Daryl HowardDallas

Crosswalk or death trap?

The Cedar Springs crosswalk should be made into a proper crosswalk or completely eliminated.

The flashing crosswalk gives pedestrians the false sense of security that vehicles will stop or yield. Although Texas law requires the operator of a vehicle to yield the right of way to pedestrians at a crosswalk with or without flashing lights, many do not.

Three out of four vehicles stopping at the crosswalk makes it even more dangerous.

The police simply do not enforce the law. I doubt there have been any citations issued to those who fail to yield.

Crosswalks in downtown Dallas and other areas have a red light at the crosswalk and violators are cited for a red light violation. To lessen the inconvenience to traffic, the light is only red for a few seconds.

The Cedar Springs crosswalk needs to be changed to a "red light crosswalk" and that light enforced by the police, otherwise we would be safer without any lights at all. I speak as one of the many that has narrowly escaped being hit by a vehicle.

H. WillsDallas

This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition September 18, 2009.